Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-05-15

Boer for shooting at an Engllshman. NO,
baas. YOU should lie up n day IN the
veldt where he is going to pass and shoot
him. That is what l would dOitl dared. "
CHAPTER. N.
ON THE BRINK.
For n few weeks after John Niel's ad-
venture at the shooting party no event OF
any Importance occurred at MOOitOntein.
Day followed day in charming mOnOtOny,
for, whatever gay worldlings" may think,
monotony is rs full of charm as q dreamy
summer afternoon. "Happy is the country
that has DO history" says the voiceo OF Wis
dom, and the same remark may be made
with even more truth of the individual.
To get up in the morning and feel that one
is full of health and strength, to pursue
the common round and daily task till the
evening, and finally to go to bed pleasantly
tired and sleep the sleep Of the just, is the
true secret of happiness. Fierce excite
ments, excursions, and alarms do not con-
duce either to mental or physical we'll
being, and it is for this reason that we find
that those whose lives have been chiefly
concerned with them crave the most after
the quiet round OF domestic lite. When
they get it they generally, it is true, pant
for the ardors of the fray whereof the dim
and distant sounds are echOing through
the spaces of their heart, in the same way
that the countries without a history are al
WAYS anxious to write II in their own
blooG; but then that is n principle of
nature which will allow of no standing
still among her subjects, and has ordained
that strife of one sort or another shall be
the absolute condition of existence.
On the whole, John found that the life
of q South African farmer came well up to
his expectations. lie had ample occupa-
ton; indeed, what between o~stricheS,
horses, cattle, sheep, and crops, he was
rather over than under occupied. Nor was
he greatly troubled by the lack of civilized
society, for IL was a man who read n great
deal, and books could he ordered from
Durham and Cape Town, while the weekly
mail brought up an ample supply OF papers,
On Sundays he always read the political
articles in the Saturday Rcricw aloud to
old Silas Croft, who, rs he got older, found
that the print tried his eyes, and this was
an attention that the old gentleman greatly
appreciated. lie was q well-inlormed man,
and had Notwithstanding his long life spent
in q half civilized country, never lost ms
hold of affairs or his interest in the wide
and rushing life of the world i'll one Of
whose side eddies he lived apart. This
task of reading the Saturday Rerie,c aloud
had formally been a part of Bessie's Sunday
service, but her uncle was very glad to
effect an exchange. Bessie's mind was
not quite in tune with the ~prOfundities OF
that journal, and her attention was apt to
wander at the most pointed passages. And
thus it came about, what between the
Saturday Rcricr and other things, that a
very warm and deep attachment sprang up
betwixt the old man and his younger
partner. John was a very taking man,
especially to the old, for whom he was
never tired of performing little services.
One of his ~favOrite sayings was that old
people should be ''let down easy, and he
acted up to it. Moreover, there was y
quiet iOllity and bluff honesty about HIM
which was undoubtedly attractive both to
men and women. But his great recon-
mendation was that he waSa well informed,
experienced man and n gentleman in a
country in which both were rare. Every
week the old man got to rely more and
more on him, and let things pass more and
more into his hands.
"Im getting old, Mel" he said to him
one night; Pm getting very old the grass
hopperis becoming II burden to me, and
III tell you what it is, my boy" laying
his hand ~affectiOnately upon Johns Shout
der. ~ have no son of my own, and you
will have to be- a SOL to me, rs my dear
Bessie has been a daughter"
John looked up into the kindly, hand
some old face, crowned with the fringe OF
snowy hair, and at the two keen eyes set
deep in 1t beneath the Overlapping eye
brows, and thought of his old father who
was long since dead; and somehow he was
moved and his own eyes filled with tears.
cay, Mr.. Croft, " he said, taking the old
mans hand, that ! will to the best of my
ability"
'Thank you, my boy, thank you. !
don'tlike talking much about these things,
hut as | said, | am getting old, and the
Almighty may require my account any
day, and if he does | rely on you 10 look
after these two girls. 1t is a wild country
this, and one never knows what may hap
pen in it from day to day, and they will
want it. Sometimes l wish / were clear
Of the place. And now Pm going to bed.
| am beginning to feel as though had
done my days work in the world. I'm
getting feeble, John, that is the fact oft
After that he always called him John.
OF jess they heard butlittle. She wrote
every week, it is trne, and gave an accur-
ate account of all that was going on at
Pretoria and of her daily doipgs, but she
was one of those people whose letters tell
one absolutely nothing of themselves and
OF what is passing in their minds. They
might as we'll have been headed Our Pre-
tOria Letter" rs Bessie said, disguStedly,
after reading three sheets in Jess curious
upright handwriting. 'Once you lose
sight of Jess" she went on, ''she might as
well he dead for all you learn about her.
Not that one learns very much when she is
with one" she added, refectiyely.
She is a peculiar woman. - said John,
thoughtfully. At first he had missed her
very much, for, peculiar as she undoubted,
" was, she had touched q new string IN
him somewhere, OF the existence of which
he had not till then been himself aware,
And what is more, it had answered pretty
strongly for some time; but now it was
slowly vibrating itself into silence again,
much as a harp does when the striker takes
his fingers from the strings. Had she
stayed on another week or so the effect
might have been more enduring.
But although Jess had gone away Bessie
had not. On the contrary, she was always
about him, surrounding him with that ten
der care a woman, however involuDtarily
cannot pre- vent her from layishing on thu